Phonetics to Whole Language

The language of music can be learned using the same successful techniques employed by the best of our first grade teachers. This includes the breaking down of sounds (phonetics), building them back up to form complete words, and then, eventually, full sentences. In the case of counting rhythms, this corresponds with identification of individual rhythmic patterns, and then combining them into musical phrases. Back to our �first grade� example; spelling, vocabulary, or other �words of the week�become part of each student�s whole language vocabulary through drill and practice usage. These newly learned words, along with very basic single syllable words (or sight words), become an ever expanding part of each child�s vocabulary. In music, we must approach counting in a similar fashion to enhance the comprehension level of the largest possible percentage of students. First, we need to establish a consistent and practical phonetics system to sound out or �analyze� each and every basic rhythmic pattern. Then, dividing rhythms of similar difficulties, the same way we group vocabulary words at different levels, drill them until the students have mastered these assigned rhythms by sight. These newly learned rhythms then become a part of each student�s own rhythmic whole language vocabulary.

In music, unlike spoken languages such as English, we must deal with additional dimensions, such as that of time. People speak languages at different speeds, some slower, some faster, and many times with different accents or dialects. Yet, for the most part, we can still comprehend their meaning and would not consider a person�s speech to be incorrect in usage if it did not exactly match our own. In early classrooms, we ask our younger students to read aloud in class, but do not insist that the full class read aloud in perfect unison, with completely accurate and uniform syntax and inflection. Nor, do we try to balance our �reading ensemble� so that no single human voice is too loud or soft, and then phrase each sentence to rise and fall in volume and pitch among all participants as the reading material dictates. If this was part of the standard first grade curriculum requirements, I am afraid many of our fellow elementary teachers may be seeking other employment opportunities. This, however, is the demand we as band directors place upon our students and ourselves all the time.

To best accomplish the task of reading rhythms, we need to adopt a similar �phonetics to whole language� approach. It also needs to have built in flexibility, enabling us to instruct students at multi levels of ability. This will allow the slower students to hang on to the phonetic approach longer than those students who quickly assimilate rhythms into their overall whole language rhythmic vocabulary. Up to this point of time, most of us have incorporated a phonetics system that uses a combinations of numbers, symbols and letters in a division process. Breaking down whole notes to half notes, and quarter notes down to 1 e & a, 2 e & a, etc. We teach this phonetic system to our beginners and normally find �smooth sailing� , or at least adequate success initially. That is, up to the point where rhythms become syncopated or more complex. Examples would include: incorporating smaller rests, or exposure to less common and seldom seen rhythms. As we move into the more advanced stages of teaching our phonetics system, we find it gets harder to be consistent and not contradict our own earlier instructional techniques. We also find it more and more difficult to reconcile our written counting system with its verbal usage in practical application. Other difficult concepts to teach phonetically include �ties� and �dots�, and finding a consistent way to reinforce subdivision concepts. Before a director or method book can successfully teach reading concepts, we must throughly think through all possible phonetic combinations, and how it will impact our later instruction of newer rhythms. If our phonetics system is too complex, we might �over process� a small or large percentage of our students, rendering our teaching efforts futile, or, at the very least, frustrating.

The tendency is to teach the upper level rhythms strictly in a whole language context, thus avoiding having to reconcile instruction with an earlier taught phonetics system. The problem is that some students will be able to pick up the whole language approach, others will not. Once you skip the phonetics or analysis phase, this breaks a link in the delicate chain, where the students can no longer add to their rhythm vocabulary. If students can no longer break down progressively more challenging rhythms, they will need to rely more and more on their band director to tell them �how it goes�, or just follow the lead of stronger readers in their ensemble. Once a student surpasses his/her phonetic comprehension level, the reading potential is diminished from that of being a counter to, at best, being a guesser.

Another problem down the road, is, even though the basic concepts of 8th and 16th notes are taught, if subdivision is not reinforced consistently, it may have to be re-taught over and over again. The use of numbers, to identify specific locations within measures, defining names of notes, fingerings, correct identification of pitch, intonation, balance and blend, all can add to the �over processing� of our young musicians. Anything we can do to streamline the reading process will be a great benefit to our students, and allow a larger number of students a greater range of comprehension. The key is to design and implement a phonetics system that very basic and easy to understand, and yet is consistent throughout all levels of rhythmic difficulty. By using a cumulative rather than a division approach to counting, we can simplify the concept of reading rhythms. In addition, a cumulative phonetic approach can help to consistently reinforce and drill the concept of subdivision. The instructional time to teach this approach is no more than three to five minutes of your class warm up time. Even with such a minimal investment of time, directors will be able to witness a significant progress in their individual student�s and ensembles rhythmic comprehension.

That is what the �Rhythm Masters� approach is all about.. Directors can establish their own phonetic system for their students if they wish, and still use the structure from the �Rhythm Masters� format for ensemble and individual rehearsal drills and evaluation materials. I have set forth in this article the basic contents of what a highly efficient rhythmic counting system should contain. The next step is the �how to do it�. With the permission of �Band World� magazine, I�ll begin to �break it down� for you in future articles.